Best budget motherboard for AMD 5600X

southernorth · 18 Oct 2020 at 13:04

Hi,
What's the best budget motherboard to take advantage of RAM overclocking, has PCI-E 4 and good VRMs.

Should I be looking at X570, B550 or an even lower tier?

mickyflinn · 18 Oct 2020 at 13:18

southernorth said:
Hi,
What's the best budget motherboard to take advantage of RAM overclocking, has PCI-E 4 and good VRMs.

Should I be looking at X570, B550 or an even lower tier?

Msi is supporting Zen 3 on all b450 motherboards from January 2021 but you will need a bios update.

Some motherboards can update the bios without a cpu, it's called flashback.

southernorth · 18 Oct 2020 at 13:21

mickyflinn said:
Msi is supporting Zen 3 on all b450 motherboards from January 2021 but you will need a bios update.

Some motherboards can update the bios without a cpu, it's called flashback.

Ok, I didn't know that - useful to know. If you were buying a motherboard on/before Nov 5th this year which one would you choose? As I don't have a B450 currently.

mickyflinn · 18 Oct 2020 at 14:12

AM4 Motherboard (B450, X470, X370) List with Usb Flashback.

https://premiumbuilds.com/motherboards/list-of-motherboards-with-usb-bios-flashback/

southernorth · 18 Oct 2020 at 15:16

mickyflinn said:
AM4 Motherboard (B450, X470, X370) List with Usb Flashback.

https://premiumbuilds.com/motherboards/list-of-motherboards-with-usb-bios-flashback/

Ok, thanks for posting. But which budget board is best that has PCI 4, good VRM and good RAM overclocking support? I'm aware you can bios flash them, but not sure which boards are good.

mickyflinn · 18 Oct 2020 at 15:20

southernorth said:
Ok, thanks for posting. But which budget board is best that has PCI 4, good VRM and good RAM overclocking support? I'm aware you can bios flash them, but not sure which boards are good.

If you want pcie4 then you need a b550 or x570 motherboard.

Msi tomahawk is the go to board.

MeatLoaf · 18 Oct 2020 at 16:16

If youre wanting a budget board id steer away from X570 as they start at around £150 but i guess it depends what your idea of budget is.

southernorth · 18 Oct 2020 at 16:32

MeatLoaf said:
If youre wanting a budget board id steer away from X570 as they start at around £150 but i guess it depends what your idea of budget is.

I'm thinking half the price of CPU for a motherboard seems reasonable, so like ~£140 max

EsaT · 18 Oct 2020 at 19:44

southernorth said:
I'm thinking half the price of CPU for a motherboard seems reasonable, so like ~£140 max

£155 would gets board with good modern VRM easily capable to taking top CPUs.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-b550-aorus-elite-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-58v-gi.html

Below that VRM quality drops with old designs with weaker strengths.

lee32uk · 21 Oct 2020 at 15:21

southernorth said:
I'm thinking half the price of CPU for a motherboard seems reasonable, so like ~£140 max

Cheaper alternative to the B550 Aorus Elite:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-b550-a-pro-amd-am4-pro-series-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-357-ms.html

orbitalwalsh · 21 Oct 2020 at 20:26

EsaT said:
£155 would gets board with good modern VRM easily capable to taking top CPUs.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/gigabyte-b550-aorus-elite-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-58v-gi.html

Below that VRM quality drops with old designs with weaker strengths.

Trying to work out of buying 3600 + b550 Aorus and getting free £100 Aorus PCIe 4.0 500gb , with selling 3600 for £100 ( £190 outlay ) and putting back into 5600x ( £290) would be worth it .

mickyflinn · 21 Oct 2020 at 21:42

orbitalwalsh said:
Trying to work out of buying 3600 + b550 Aorus and getting free £100 Aorus PCIe 4.0 500gb , with selling 3600 for £100 ( £190 outlay ) and putting back into 5600x ( £290) would be worth it .

Not worth it unless you need the 3600 as z stop gap

3600 £190 selling for £100 leaves you £90 loss so Your paying for the m2.